Pictures of Hike at El Morro on May 9th, 2016

Sister Cardon and Sister Brown with a couple elders from their district

Sister Brown doing her pushups!

Exchanges Once again!

Ya'at'eeh!

This past week has been crazy with exchanges once again! being the companion of an Sister Trainer Leader is insane with exchanges! I feel like I've only been in Gallup half of the time and the other half I'm elsewhere with a different companion! As you know we've been working with the C----Fa and F--- and K--- have made the decision to be baptized!!!! (They are twins) and we were shooting for this upcoming Saturday (the 28th) however president says that he would feel much more comfortable if at least one of the parents are baptized along with them so they might not be able to be baptized this week unless Sister C--- decides to as well....she believes that she is ready, she just is having the hardest time with tithing! She barely makes it paycheck to paycheck, so she is going to be thinking about it and praying about it! We are praying for her as well, and we think that her kids being held back from being baptized because of it will help give her that push to try out tithing!

As far as Exchanges go: I was in Holbrook, Arizona for Tues and Wed. with sister Orton then St. Michaels Arizona again on Saturday with Sister Westover. She  went to BYUH and knows Haily Blalack!!! 

pretty cool! small world! 

Earlier this week we had dinner with Deb (our mom away from home...the one that called you) and we watched Meet the Mormons with her....she loved it and said that the more she comes to know about the Mormon religion the more she likes it! We were also over at her house yesterday for Sister Cardon's birthday! We had cheesecake and had a member family come over as well and we had a short lesson with Deb. She agreed to read at least a couple verses of the Book of Mormon every night...but in return we have to promise to make it a goal to place 2 Book of Mormons a week! lol, I have no problem with her giving us challenges like that!!! Oh and also Deb came to church yesterday as well!

I gave a training lesson in District meeting this week on baptism! That went well.

Oh and we had interviews with president on Thursday! Sister Cardon and I got permission to learn some martial arts (just like the self-defense aspect of it) from a member for exercise in the morning...we can only do it a couple times a week though, which is fine by me!

ah' hyee' he! (thank you!)

ayoo'aniinish'ni! (I love you)

Hagoonee' (similar to good bye)

Sister brown!

Me and Sister Westover 

The Fruit pizza we made for Sister Cardons birthday!
 I also made her a breakfast burrito.

Sister Cardon and Deb (mom away from home)!

The Zone Leaders gave us grape juice and vanilla ice-cream
for Sister Cardons birthday!
​

The first exchange of the transfer! 
There's Sisters Orton, Brown, Cardon and Woods. 

I went on Exchanges. Area Sickness is a thing!

Yat-ah-hey!

Haha, I probably spell that different every time! 

We had Exchanges all week! They really helped me appreciate my companion! I actually got homesick for Gallup and my companion! lol, didn't think area sickness was a thing! 

Last Monday we went on a hike at El Morro, with our district....my camera was completely dead, so I had to use sister Cardons....if I have time I'll send pics.

I went to Joseph city for exchanges. It is a very small town and I didn't see a whole lot of natives there, so its kinda crazy the differences you see in each area! 

The C---- canceled there lesson with us again!!! but we told sister C----- to give us a call! She called us and we explained that we felt that she and her daughter were ready for baptism and that we really felt that they should be baptized by the end of May! She said she'd think about it... well you know how I mentioned that they were hung up on tithing, well this Sunday they grabbed a tithing slip!!!!!! So Sister Cardon and I are overjoyed!!!! They are going to pay there tithing! Then be baptized!!!!!! 

We also had exchanges with St. Micheal's this week (which is the only place on the reservation  that sisters serve currently) and oh my heavens I love the reservation!!! The people that we taught were so awesome and really funny too! I love the increase of the Navajo culture there as well! Sister Hillum and I went to the flee market on our lunch break and I got a bracelet, there were these awesome converse shoes that had some native designs on them! I wanted to buy a pair, but they were actually quite expensive! We did a lot of service in Saint Micheal's, and it was a lot of fun!

We were fed after exchanges were over by some members with the last name of Bamfo and they are from Ghana! I asked them if they knew how to make Fufu and sister Bamfo's jaw dropped....the look on her face was so funny! She gave me this look like....."you're some white girl from Montana...how on earth do you know about fufu!!!???" It was so funny! Boy did that get the conversation going!!! Brother Bamfo likes to talk! Our dinner appointment went longer than it should have, because he just kept going on and on, but I love them to death!

Oh and also, I totally just remembered, while on exchanges in Joseph city, I met one of Ryan Bergman's old mission companions! He was a member that came to one of our lessons with us! That was pretty cool!

About 1/4 to 1/2 of our ward is native of some sort, and we teach anyone and everyone who is willing to listen to us! 

In my last blog there was a picture of tents made with Blankets and oh my goodness there is such a funny story behind the Blanket tents! Sister Cardon was feeling just so spiritually drained and stressed after Mission Leader Conference that day, and I was feeling a little stressed as well and so we were like: "we need to do something to help us get in a better mood, and get our mind off of things" so we built a blanket fort with our mattresses underneath! Well we kept it like that for two nights and slept there. We took down the blankets the next morning but our mattresses were still out, our house was messier then it ever has been because we had been making cards and so there were papers all over the table. The land lords decided that they would drop by that morning...I'm sure they had all sorts of thoughts going through their heads when they saw the mattresses in the living room! At the time Sister Cardon and I were like "great, our land lords probably think we are irresponsible and messy"....our house is hardly ever messy, we keep it pretty tidy, but of course the one time that its super messy the land lords come over! At the time we were kinda freaking out, but looking back on it we just laugh!

I love you all!

Hagoonee!

Sister Brown

So Enjoyed getting to Skype on Mother's Day!

Sister Brown got her hair cut by sister Cardon

 Yaa-at-ah-ey! (Hello)

I so enjoyed getting to skype with you yesterday!

A really cool experience I had this week was when we were doing weekly planning! we were trying to decide when to put two of our investigators on for a baptismal date and we decided to try for the 28th. When we were saying a closing prayer the date of the 21st popped into my mind! I immediately was like that's too soon! But then I was like no, this is probably a prompting Because why else would I think of the 21st! so after the prayer I told sister Cardon about it and she also thought it was too soon and kinda second guessed it almost, which made we second guess it and so we were both worrying about it wondering if we should go with the 21st or the 28th still. Well it bothered me the rest of the day. The next morning during personal study I was lead to read Alma 32 and I said an additional prayer asking God to let me know for sure if the 21st was right and if that had truly been a prompting! As I was reading I was basically rebuked hard core from God! Essentially, he was telling me that I needed to have more faith and realize that we are going to have to work harder to get them there by the 21st, but what I had thought the day before was truly a prompting and that we should try for the 21st! The spirit was very strong as I was studying, It was a wonderful experience even though I was rebuked! lol!

We had 6 investigators come to church! And one Less Active came for 1 hour at least! A whole family came (five of them) and one other investigator who I actually hadn't met yet came as well. 

Then a less active came for sacrament meeting...we've been trying to get her to come to church so it was great to see her there even if it was only sacrament!

I love you all!

I wish I had more time to email! So many more things that I could write about!!!

Again love you so much!

Sister Brown!!!

Sister Brown and Sister Cardon at a the Deckers home for a meal.
They say "She is a lovely girl, and we are lucky to have her here"

 I was able to shake Elder Quentin L.Cooks  hand at our Missionary Conference the first week I was here. I also got to talk to my Cousin Elder Stott.

Elder Brown, Elder Stott (Cousin) to Sister Brown, Sister Cardon
at Missionary Conference with Elder Quentin L.Cook and Elder Echohawk

We made blanket forts in our living room

A cake Sister Brown made for an auction for their ward youth and scouts. It went for $40 dollars.

A  super cool looking house!

Some cool geography!

Fun at the car wash

The wind blows a lot. And our weather has been cool 60's to 70's 

Here are some more scenery pictures.

My first area is Gallup!

A'atehhea (that means hello in Navajo) 

This week has been great! My first Area is Gallup (southern NM)! My new companion is Sister Cardon! She is from Utah and she is just so great! She used to work at Disney world, she's a cosmetologist (she's actually going to cut my hair later today)

Funny story, we had a missed call from some random number and so we decided to call it back and they were confused as to why we were calling them. We told them that they had called us and they were like...umm ok? well I guess we called the wrong number? And we were like umm ok, then I was just like: would you like to hear a message about Jesus Christ? And they were like um who is this? So we told them Sister Cardon and Sister Brown, we're missionaries! They were like oh, where is the church? and so we told them where the church was and what time they could come on Sunday! they were like oh ok, cool! Then hung up! they never actually came to church (I figured that they wouldn't) but we could count it as a TTI (teach, testify and Invite)!

We have so many really cool families in the ward and that we are teaching! The Waddlingtons are just fantastic....brother Wadlington teaches martial arts! Him and his wife went on a lesson with us, to this lady who has all sorts of medical issues and is always asking "why me?" She is so lonely and feels that she isn't loved. I actually started crying (not full on but I shed a few tears) in the lesson because I just love her so much and it pains me to see her like that.

We are also teaching a stellar family! They are basically members, they just haven't been baptized yet! The parents actually punish their kids when they don't come to church! They are just hung up on tithing and are afraid of falling away if they get baptized! At the end of our lesson on fasting and fast offerings with the them, we asked if there was anything we could do for them and one of the kids was like...weed? and I was like we can totally do that! And sister Cardon was like: yea, We do weed! and one of the girls just busted up laughing! We then realized the way she said it and started laughing as well.

There are so many more people I would love to tell you about, but my time is so limited!

I'm not sure how big my area is but it covers quite a bit...I will be driving at some point but my companion does all the driving because she actually kinda knows the area!

Oh and we had a mission conference with Elder Cook which was so good and I saw Elder Stott my cousin! 

I have only had one "spicy" dish...that was Domino's Pizza with green chilli peppers on it, it was really tasty and not even that spicy! I have had fry bread twice now and it is quite delicious! I had navajo tacos, but the "chilli" was just beans....not even with sauce...it was still good though!

My companion also has a little brother who will be going on a mission soon. If he has his call they are going to open it on Mother's day when she calls/skypes!

I love you all!!!!!!

Sister Brown

Sister Cardon, Sister Brown, Sister Adams and Mission President Adams
Taken April 26,2016

On my way to New Mexico

On Monday I woke up at 2:30am and got ready to get on a train to ride to the airport. 

I got to call home and talk with my family while waiting for my flight. I fly to Denver and then to Durango from there we are driven to Farmington. I will stay the night at the Mission home.  Tuesday I will be assigned my companion and area. Mondays will be my Preparation day so I will not be able to email until next Monday.

Sister Brown at the Airport after talking to her family.

I had an eye opener when I was ask to think and answer some questions  in my journal about the things I have learned in the last few weeks.  I realized I have grown a lot in my testimony and understanding of the Gospel a lot more then I realized. I now understand that my job as a missionary is to invite and help others come unto Christ.

I had a neat experience with Domonic our investigator. I really felt the love that God has for him. It was an amazing feeling.

Sundays at the MTC are not much different then other days but a little.  We get to walk around the temple grounds in the morning for a half an hour which I really enjoy doing. Then we go to Relief Society, have a district meeting and then lunch.  After that we have Sacrament meeting and a few other things.

I didn't have that much more of  responsibilities as a sister trainer leader which is the Equal to a Zone leader.  I got to carry around a phone which I never used. And I checked in with the other sisters in the other district to see how they were doing.

Now my journey begins. My mission President and his wife are wonderful. I am excited and a little anxious to get to work.

An amazing Week!

Liz and Sister Brown

Look who the Lord sent to Sister Brown to help her know God knows her and loves her.

I was so happy to see Liz this week! I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw her!

I have an amazing district! they are seriously the best! half are going to Colorado Springs, CO and the other half are going to Farmington NM! I forgot to tell you last week that we get to go to the temple each week on our preparation day.

So many things happened this week that I don't even know where to start! This week was sooo amazing though! First of all my companion and I are the New STL's (Like district leaders but for sisters) until we leave which will be Monday the 25th.

When it comes to TRC investigators we only get them for a week and then we get to teach other TRC investigators the next week, but we actually got to keep Domonic this week!! He is the sweetest man you'll ever meet! He thought Saturday was going to be his last day with us, so he brought us flowers and gummy bears! Also Domonic is so Amazing we never have to commit him to anything because he commits himself before we can even get to it!!! 

Sister Anderson, Domonic, Sister Brown

Flowers that Domonic gave us.

I have grown to truly love the Book of Mormon with all of my heart! We did this thing called a book of mormon read, in class and we were supposed to write down a question that we wanted answered but regarding to our investigators needs and so we chose one of our investigators named Andy...the question we were searching an answer for was: "what can Andy do to draw closer to Christ?" the Amazing thing that happened is that the chapter we were reading to seek revelation was Ether 12 where the whole chapter is on faith. The answers that I received to that question didn't necessarily have anything to do with faith! The answers I received were that Andy needed to pray more earnestly and believe that God will answer his prayers and also that he needs to apply Christ's atonement in his life! We then taught Andy that night and because of that revelation, that we had received, we went into the lesson, and I don't even fully remember how we started or anything, but we talked about the atonement and how God and Christ love us so much that Christ came down to earth of his own free will to take upon him the sins of the world! We also mentioned that we have to be willing to forgive ourselves for the things we've done...God is willing to forgive, but we have to forgive ourselves as well! The spirit was so strong and Andy completely opened up to us about an experience that happened in his past and he feels that he doesn't deserve forgiveness! I was amazed at how he just completely opened up to us!

Our district with one of our teachers on his last night with us...brother Slavens! He's the one in street clothes (he was pretending to be an investigator for some teaching purposes, and so he decided to dress in street clothes to make it more real for his last night)

Another experience that I had this week was while we were Role playing in class...we were supposed to pretend to be an investigator...we were to be ourselves but at a time in our life where things were really difficult, and then image us without the gospel at that point! The first thing that popped in my head was when Grandpa Brown died (probably because it was the most recent)...so I went back to that time in my head, and then imagined myself not knowing that I would see him again and I literally started crying in class! I felt completely hopeless and devastated! I truly saw just how devastating his death would be without the gospel in my life! I realized just how much the Gospel means to me in my life, and I had this immense desire to let everyone know about the gospel! I don't want anyone to feel that death is the end! I want everyone to know just how much God loves us and that we truly can see our families again after death!

One of our new TRC investigators is named Kensey...she has read the B of M many times and even gone to BYU and church! she's prayed about the B of M multiple times and she feels that she still has no idea if it's true or not! after a few lessons with her, we have come to realize that she is comfortable where she's at in life...she says she really wants to know that the Book of Mormon is true, but what I see is that because she is perfectly fine with where she's at, she doesn't realize that she doesn't want to know that it's true as badly as she thinks she does! I want to help her so bad, but what it really comes down to is that she is going to have to realize that she really does need more in her life, and I'm not sure how I can help her do that!

Also there was a talk that we got to watch last week that is so insightful and amazing! It's called the Characters of Christ, by Elder Bednar. Find it and watch it or read it! It will change your life!

We also had a Devotional where the BYU Men's choir came in and sang to us....they are so good! The last song they sang, they played a video with it, about Christ and his atonement and I could feel the spirit very strongly!

I got my flight plans last Friday! I fly out of Salt Lake and have a layover in Denver then fly to Durango...we are then driven from there to farmington!

Sister Brown at the MTC

They have some pretty amazing art work at the MTC